BoI mulls tax break for IT investors

PHUKET CITY: An eight-year tax break for IT investors is among incentives being considered by the Board of Investment (BoI) to kick-start Phuket’s much-desired role as a software development center. The tax break proposal was revealed by the President of the Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA), Manoo Ordeedolchest, when he came to Phuket to exchange views with participants at a public forum at the weekend. K. Manoo told about 120 people who gathered at the Thavorn Grand Plaza Hotel in Phuket City on Sunday that if the BoI approved the tax break proposal, it would have immediate effect for IT companies wishing to invest in Thailand. That plan, and other practical incentives, including speedy processing of work permits and visas, had yet to be confirmed, he said, although he hoped that the full package could be officially announced before July 1. “Right now, [investors wanting] to set up a company here have to go through the traditional process,” he said. “Sipa doesn’t have the authority yet for one-stop services. “Sipa is considering working procedures and regulations for attracting qualified IT workers to whom BoI can offer work permits and visas. “Hopefully, we can make them effective from July 1. We will avoid red tape and once we receive complete application documents, we should be able to decide whether a person qualifies within five days at most.” He said that Phuket was no longer 20 years behind Singapore in IT development. “Phuket can jump forward within the next five years and will be able to compete with Singapore in some areas,” he said. “Phuket is a good international brand name and if we link technology [with the brand], it will be more competitive in attracting investors,” K. Manoo said. He added that it had been agreed that, to qualify, foreign knowledge workers must have at least a bachelors’ degree, have three years’ experience in software, or be hired by a local company with registered capital of not less than 30 million baht. Rattana Wetprasit, Acting Manager of the Sipa office in Phuket, said that the low speed of Internet access and the lack of high-standard English among Thais were the two problems most frequently mentioned by people at the conference.